We are continuing to work away at our boat projects before putting her on the hard for our trip home. I put another coat of epoxy on the cracked batten and I think I have it fixed. I will sand it down later today and the job should be finished. I also decided to install new float switches for the bilge pumps. The current system does not work that well, so I had bought new switches back in the USA before I left, but just never got around to installing them. We seem to have water leaking in when it rains and it would be a disaster if the bilge pumps did not work properly while we were gone for a couple of months. These new switches are screwed down and after consulting with a couple of other boaters, I was confident that the bottom of the keel was thick enough to drill a shallow hole to screw them into. WRONG!!!! Next thing you know I had a little water spout shooting up from the bottom of our boat!!!! After a few minutes to recover from the - "Wholly shit - I can't believe I just did that", I got it sealed up and will finish the patch when we get the boat hauled next week. Now I am sure everybody reading this is thinking - "How could you do this". But I was SURE that the fibreglass was plenty thick enough at this spot. I was not going to put anything in blog about this screw up, but Karen quickly put something on facebook, so I figured I better tell the whole story. BTW, I figured out a new way to install my new switches and it does not involve a drill.

We are heading into Panama City today to see if we can find a dehumidifier to have running on the boat while we are gone. Mold and mildew are a big problem here with the high humidity and temperatures, and with the boat closed up tight we would be sure to come back to a mess if we don't have one.

We had a comment about the great smile Karen has on the previous picture. On looking through our canal transit pictures, we ALWAYS had great big smiles. We really enjoyed the experience.